Water Bankruptcy

Image
above: Map of major river basins dependent on the Hindu Kush Himalayan
region including the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Irrawaddy, Ganges, and
Indus River and provide water to over 1.3 billion people. From (http://www.icimod.org/?q=1137).

[IB Editor's note: The ten most populated river basins in the world include the:
Ganges (528 million people), Yangtze (407 million poeple), Indus (254
million poeple), Nile (207 million poeple), Yellow (170 million
poeple), Huai He (103 million poeple), Niger (100 million poeple), Hai
(96 million poeple), Krisna (89 million poeple), Danube (81 million
people).]

Water
crisis is haunting millions in today's world. Now, there are
water-poor, the portion of populace that finds it difficult to get safe
water, and water-rich, those who spend a lot of water for car wash and
flush down gallons of water at a time.

Seven
of the ten most populous river basins, including the Ganges, Yangtze ,
Niger and Danube are likely to face significant water scarcity by
2050.

Mismanagement
is creating water bankruptcy, said experts. “‘Water bankruptcy' a
threat in many regions” a news-report by Thin Lei Win from Bangkok on
September 25, 2012 in AlertNet said:

Many
regions face “water bankruptcy” due to mismanagement of water
resources, with implications for food and energy security, experts have
warned.

This
mismanagement of water and aquatic systems has “led to situations where
both social and ecological systems are in jeopardy and have even
collapsed,” said the report, Science-Policy Bridges over Troubled Waters for PDf file (bit.ly/RdxnYC) - a study of almost 200 major international water-related projects over the past 20 years.

Yet
“many in the policy- and decision- making realm regard these systems
and their resources as limitless and freely available,” said the
report, published by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The report was launched on September 24, 2012, the opening day of the GEF International Waters Science Conference in Bangkok .

“The
consequences of poor decision-making are dire: we face a ‘water
bankruptcy' in many regions of the world with implications for food and
energy security, adaptation to climate variability and change,
economic growth and human security challenges,” it added.

The
report urged investment in science to identify emerging issues and
track trends relating to the use of water resources to help reduce the
risks.

It
also said links between science and policymaking should be
strengthened and encouraged scientists to be at the forefront of
knowledge dissemination.

“‘Faceless
science' does not inspire confidence in the information projects are
producing and the advice that stems from them,” the report said.

“Urbanization
and economic activity are increasingly putting river basins under
intense pressures, which are projected to increase further due to
growing water scarcity and diminishing water quality,” said the report.

It
said rivers are particularly exposed to human pressures as they are
where most of the largest cities and areas with the highest population
densities are situated.

Ten
river basins, including the Ganges, Yangtze , Niger and Danube , are
home to a quarter of the world's population and water scarcity is
likely to be significant in seven of these basins by 2050.

“This has serious implications for human development, the economy and basin/downstream ecosystems,” said the report.

The
report also said management measures such as flow regulation, damming
and water consumption in dry regions change entire river systems.

Humans are also impacting oceans, the report added.

“In
some marine areas, dissolved oxygen – a critical ecological indicator
for coastal marine ecosystems – has changed drastically over a
relatively short time and has become a worldwide crisis,” it said.

“Overall,
the huge increase in the stored heat in oceans does not bode well for
impacts on climate, ecosystems, sea level and eventually human
society,” it added.